Q Tha Hero “Hero 4 Hire!”
I’ve listened to a lot of Q Tha Hero recently, and I love everything he’s released so far but struggle to find an angle on his work as a writer. Like, he’s a very good rapper with strong lyrics and excellent taste in production? This is high but totally non-specific praise, and in aesthetic terms, he’s a type of rapper that could exist comfortably anywhere between 1992 and the present. He’s an underground rap traditionalist but not quite retro, though I’d place him much closer to Earl Sweatshirt or Curren$y than, say, J. Cole. He’s the kind of rapper who’d thrive on an Alchemist or Madlib beat, but I’d be more excited for him to land on a more ambitious Tyler the Creator or Kaytranada track. I imagine great things for this guy, but he’s great enough right now as it is, monologuing about trudging through bad vibes but mostly sounding like he’s having a good time.
Buy it from Amazon.
Little Simz “Free”
A lot of the Little Simz songs I’ve gravitated to in the past were aggressive and showy; music made by someone eager to show and prove. “Free” is far more relaxed but just as assured. It’s not a love song, but it’s a song about love. There’s an old Wilco song where Jeff Tweedy sings about “making love understandable,” and that’s kinda what Simz is trying to do in the first verse. She presents her philosophy of love, which is largely rooted in humility, kindness, empathy, and patience. In the second half she examines fear, which is presented as the dark opposite of love: “Fear works best when love isn’t close.” Fear closes doors, love brings freedom, and freedom yields creation. She makes an airtight argument, but keeps it chill.
Buy it from Amazon.